Home to over 17,000 people, Moraga has long been committed to environmental sustainability. Nestled in central Contra Costa County, east of the Oakland hills, Moraga sits in a valley boasting easy access to trails and open space like Rancho Laguna Park and the popular Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail. Moraga is also home to Saint Mary’s College [...]

The historic City Hall and Police Station buildings facing one another in bucolic, downtown Calistoga belie the increasing energy efficiency and creature comforts of those facilities, thanks to projects initiated by Sustainable Napa’s Project Manager, Bill Bennett, and Calistoga’s City Manager, Dylan Feik. After retrofitting the city’s street lights in 2016, the following year, Calistoga [...]

The new year is a great time to make simple lifestyle changes, and, of course, save energy with home upgrades. Here are six of the most effective ways to slash your energy usage and lower your monthly energy bill. Both the planet and your wallet will be grateful! Turn off the lights. Each year, an [...]

The holidays are a great time to relax, spend time with friends and family, and reduce energy consumption. As the new year approaches, here are six easy ways to significantly reduce your energy usage. Stay Warm with Style - Turn your heater down and wear warm clothes indoors. It’s a great time to break out [...]

In preparation for the launch of a new call center in Pittsburg that will serve MCE, a five-day workforce development training was organized by Future Build East County, the City of Pittsburg, Calpine, and AnswerNet. Electricity service to nine additional communities in Contra Costa County will begin in April 2018. This is the first time [...]

This fall, Marin became the first county in the state to have 100% renewable electricity for all of its county, town, and city municipal accounts. Together, all 12 municipalities have eliminated an estimated 3,570 metric tons of pollution, or the EPA equivalent of removing 764 cars from the road in one year. Belvedere was the [...]

On November 16, 2017, MCE’s Board of Directors recently honored the El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee with the 2017 Charles F. McGlashan Advocacy Award. Nominees included Sarah Loughran and Helene Marsh, in connection with the Environmental Forum of Marin, and Melissa Yu from the Sierra Club Bay Chapter. MCE established the annual award in June 2011 [...]

The County of Marin’s West Marin Service Center's (WMSC) new and expanded facility is now under construction, with a built-in plan to support a sustainable environment. The building will replace the older facility, with plans to open and serve the community in mid-2018, while the community will continue to receive uninterrupted service from WMSC's temporary [...]

Not only is Thanksgiving a great opportunity to spend time with friends and family, it’s a holiday where food can really take center stage. Here are seven easy ways to avoid gobbling up excess energy while preparing the perfect meal. Avoid frequent oven checks. Each time the oven is opened, a surprisingly large amount of [...]

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has awarded $3.5 million to MCE to conduct a two-year, Low-Income Family and Tenants (LIFT) pilot program to better serve income-qualified multifamily communities in MCE’s service area. As residents of income-qualified multifamily housing, renters face multiple barriers to participating in energy efficiency programs, including fear of property owner retaliation, [...]

Every year, California uses about 2,250 Megawatt hours of electricity, the second highest in the nation behind only Texas. But don’t lose hope – your choices can make a difference! As the seasons begin to change, ample opportunities arise to reduce your environmental footprint (and save some money too!). Here are our four favorite ways to reduce [...]

To prepare for an evacuation, take these precautionary steps Get updates from Cal Fire County Fire Information: Napa, Solano, Contra Costa, Marin Be safe - if you feel like you are in danger, leave Listen to mandatory evacuation warnings - if you are under one, evacuate as quickly as possible Be aware of road conditions and [...]

MCE and Waste Management’s Redwood Landfill celebrated the opening of a new, 3.9 megawatt (MW) landfill gas-to-energy plant that will generate enough renewable electricity to provide service to more than 5,000 MCE customers. The facility provides an environmentally friendly, sustainable solution to power generation that can produce electricity consistently. Unlike other forms of [...]

On July 20, MCE’s Board of Directors voted to add nine new Contra Costa communities to its service area, including Concord, Danville, Martinez, Moraga, Oakley, Pinole, Pittsburg, San Ramon, and unincorporated Contra Costa County. MCE electricity service to new Contra Costa customers will begin in the spring of 2018, but the MCE team is [...]

Flex Your (Conservation) Power! To prepare for the upcoming solar eclipse, MCE is urging all California residents and businesses to use this event as an opportunity to reduce electricity use by taking part in at least one action on the “Simple Plan for the Solar Eclipse.” This once-in-50-year celestial event will take place on Monday, [...]

Demonstrating environmental leadership, the Cities and Towns of Corte Madera, El Cerrito, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Napa, Novato, Richmond, Ross, and San Rafael; and the Counties of Marin and Napa have all voted to enroll in MCE’s Deep Green electricity service, which is 100% greenhouse gas-free, Green-e Energy certified, wind and solar power produced in California. [...]

Guest post by Mara Ervin, GRID Alternatives Development and Programs Manager The opinions expressed by RE-Source Guest Bloggers are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of MCE, its employees, or contractors. MCE reviews all posts but is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied. [...]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that RichmondBUILD will receive a $200,000 Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training grant to help low-income residents learn the skills needed to secure employment in the environmental field. Click to read the EPA's full press release. About MCE’s partnership with RichmondBUILD 2013 | MCE and RichmondBUILD signed [...]

MCE has partnered with solar developer Cenergy Power to build what will be the largest publicly-owned solar project in the Bay Area, MCE Solar One. The 60 acre, 10.5 MW ground mounted solar farm in Richmond, CA will support 341 jobs and provide power for 3,417 homes per year. The City of Richmond and MCE [...]

Guest Blog post by Lois Smith, Marketing & Outreach Manager, Community Energy Services Corporation Every business wants to keep costs down and provide excellent customer service. Energy efficiency is a good way to pay less on energy bills while keeping high-quality lighting and refrigeration. However, many businesses lack the resources to invest in energy-efficient measures [...]

Guest blog by Chris Yalonis, Co‐founder and President, VenturePad Deep sustainable business practices are baked into the DNA of VenturePad, Marin’s new premier coworking space and incubator, which opened on March 1 in downtown San Rafael at 1020 B Street. VenturePad will cultivate, support and connect over 150 entrepreneurs, freelancers, creatives, and purpose-driven ventures. The design, buildout, [...]

On the heels of Earth Day, MCE unveiled a new, one megawatt, ground-mounted solar project at Cooley Quarry in unincorporated Novato. The solar farm is MCE’s fourth local Feed-In Tariff (FIT) project, which will provide power for customers who choose MCE’s new Local Sol energy service. “This is the second MCE solar project that will [...]

MCE’s Board of Directors voted to reduce energy rates by an average of 3.7%, effective April 1, bringing the cost of MCE’s Light Green 50% renewable energy service slightly lower than PG&E’s 30% renewable energy service. In its 7 years of operation, MCE has never changed rates more than once a year. Those [...]

In the fall of 2016, MCE partnered with Rising Sun Energy Center, a local nonprofit organization that focuses on energy and water efficiency as well as workforce and youth development. Through their California Youth Energy Services (CYES), Rising Sun and MCE offered no-cost energy and water assessments and installations for El Cerrito and San Pablo [...]

Guest Blog post by Gopal Shanker, Récolte Energy President Last December PG&E reached its 5% cap for net energy metering (“NEM 1.0") — the program that solar customer-generators have been using to offset their annual electricity bills. For the next few years, net metered projects will be interconnected under the NEM successor program (“NEM 2.0”). [...]

On Tuesday, February 14, MCE and JHS Properties unveiled Freethy Industrial Park, a new, two-megawatt, ground-mounted solar project in Richmond, marking the completion of MCE’s third Feed-In Tariff project. The Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program invites local entrepreneurs to develop and sell renewable energy to MCE within its service area at a fixed price for twenty years. [...]

While most of us are preparing for a sleep-deprived week in mid-March (not you, Hawaii and Arizona), I could not help but wonder: "What’s with Daylight Saving Time (DST) and why do we all agree to go through this every year?" What I’ve found is that there are a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding [...]

All the world loves a lover. As we approach Valentine’s Day, many of us are looking for that perfect symbol of our perfect love – a gift for our beloved. But for the environmentally aware Juliet or Romeo, never was there a story of more woe. The tons and tons of greeting cards, cut-flower arrangements, [...]

Guest Blog post by Rebecca Milliken, El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee Member & MCE Deep Green Customer As the City of El Cerrito celebrates its 100th anniversary, the City’s volunteer-based Environmental Quality Committee (EQC) is using the yearlong celebration as an opportunity to promote a greener, more sustainable future. The EQC partnered with MCE to launch [...]